ALEXANDRE DESPLAT: The man behind the Oscar-nominated music of Philomena

You may know I've got a bit of a crush on Alexandre Desplat. He's the French composer who has given us some of the world's most glorious scores - Zero Dark Thirty, The King's Speech, Grand Budapest Hotel, The Tree of Life - the list of credits for this gorgeous genius goes on and on, check out my gushing November 2013 post and take a listen. He's also one of this year's Oscar nominees for his Philomena score.

It's the man's music that moves me - the muscles and the decidedly strong nose aren't bad either - which Deadline describes better than I could, saying the score is "melancholy but also incredibly wishful, walks a razor-thin line between the two and works beautifully with a sparkle of hope punctuated with a recurring delicate ding of a percussion instrument, the triangle."

Ah that 'delicate ding'. And here's how the maestro puts it himself, talking about the character of Philomena, and the real woman behind the story. 

“She gives so much doing nothing that the music has to respect that,” said Desplat. “If [the music] plays, it has to be so subtle. And yes, all her life is about this thing that was considered a sin, and it ruined her life. So yes, the music, to me, should reflect that — but in a tender way because her forgiveness, her humanity, is above any of the hard times she’s been through. She forgives, she loves people. Funnily enough, I met the real Philomena, and I could feel that, too.” His score, he says, is trying to guide the audience “to open windows, emphasize things that you might feel even more, and sometimes just pull back, leave the actors alone and respect the dialogue. Respect.”

Now, listen! I could play this over and over again all day long. In fact I may. Enjoy!